Ok, to sum up what i meant by the strengths and weaknesses. And yes, i do realize i put the same thing twice, but let me explain. Also, let me tell you that i wasn't in the best condition for paintballing. I was using ZAP Sports Series paint that was a month old from Wal Mart. Now, Wal Mart paint that they sell are usually in storage for a while already, but ontop of that were a month old. Also, although ZAP Sports Series had a good fit for the Lapco, they're not good quality paint at all. And it as 27 C outside. And im not that great at paintballing, i can only just shoot non moving targets (because I suck)

Ok, for the Strengths:

Accuracy: This thing has A LOT better accuracy from the stock. Trust me the accuracy will amaze you. It's also a lot more accurate than the J&J Ceramic and more accurate than the Smart Part barrels, but a considerable amount in my opinion. This barrel shoots the balls STRAIGHT and still shoots it straight like a dart from 100+ feet out with crappy paintballs.
I did some target practise to test out how accurate this barrel was. I was able to hit cans off my fence from 20 feet out with absolutely no problem. (All i did was line up the open scopes on my 98C and just fired away) The balls were dead on straight and hit the cans. I was able to hit the cans from 90 feet always off a chair leg with 1-3 shots. This brings me to my next strength, CONSISTENCY

Consistency: This barrel seemed to be quite tempermental for me. That's why I put conisistency twice. When this barrel shoots well, It will shoot 5-8 shots dead on. For example, i would be able to hit the cans from 60-90 feet away no problem if i just aligned the open scopes.

Range: This barrel had great range over the Ceramic and Stock. I was able to hit targets at 90 feet with very litte drop, and my velocity was barely at 200 (My velocity screw was almost all the way in.) The range improvement is very evident over the stock and Ceramic, and you can hit targets at long distances, maybe 110 feet out no problem before you would have any balls dropping.

Looks: This barrel looked pretty cool on my Tippmann 98 Custom. It made my gun look like a true rifle because of the 14" length and the bead blast gave it a cool color over the normal anondized black. Also the barel flares out at the end and has groves on which gives it a nice Look to it.

Craftsmanship: The craftsmanship of the barrel is very good. The anondizing job is good, the paint barely chips. The inside of the barrel also has a very good mirror micro-finish and the inside is sooo smooth and shiny. Also, there are many added and precise features of this barrel that make it very hydro-dynamic for the paintball to obtain the best accuracy, range, and speed.

Noise: The barrel is louder than most barrels, and makes the barrel sound like a M16. I personally think its cool because it sounds like a real gun, scared people when they hear it. And plus, people will know that you're shooting at them when the accuracy of the barrel hits them in one shot ;)

Porting: The porting is at the end of the barrel so you get the whole 11" or 13" of the barrel in use, for better range and accuracy.

Weight: This barrel is really light, but not TOO light. It balances out the weight of the gun so that the weight is centered, and that's what you want.

Price: FOR THE PRICE, YOU GET A BARREL THAT SHOOTS AS WELL AS 100 DOLLAR BARRELS. THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST PRICE:PERFORMANCE RATIO BARREL ON THE MARKET.

Weaknesses:

Noise: The noise is loud, and some people might not like it, so i put it as a weakness if you like quiet barrels. Its not as loud as you think trust me, its not like a shotgun. Its just a bit louder. If you were to shoot to barrels, then maybe you could tell the difference but when you're playing it all sounds the same.

Lack of Porting Along the Barrel: This is the cause of the louder noise, but it makes up for it (as described above)

Looks: Some say its plain because its all black, personal preference.

Consistency: Now this one is in question really. I'm seriously not sure if this is because of the barrel or the old moldy crappy ZAP paintballs i used. But when i was using this barrel, some balls tended to curve a little bit. It curved about a foot or a foot and a half at 60 feet out, or sometimes it dropped at 50 feet. This could have been because of the crappy paintballs, that they were old and had dimples, or because of the co2 (i dont have an expansion chamber), or just my poor aim but just in cause its the barrel (which i doubt) this can be a problem. I'll update this review when i use this barrel again with better paint.

Barrel O-Ring: Now I'm not sure if its just my barrel defected, but the barrel O-ring is wierd. Its really tight and it's hard to screw it, and i'm not even sure if you screw it in or not, but its kinda wierd. Its tight to screw in and hard to screw out. I'm not sure about it, but if you get the Big Shot, then you'll know what i mean. I don't know if there is a difference between screwing it all the way in our leaving it out but it just makes me think and I hate thinking.

Conclusion:

I Think this barrel with good paintballs can and will put the paintballs exactly where you want them. I had a couple of Nelson Nel Splat paintballs (better quality than ZAP, just as old tho) but I think those ones shot accurately. And when this barrel gets a good ball to shoot, it will shoot it WELL. Its seriously almost like a dart. It just goes STRAIGHT, no dropping, RIGHT into where you were aiming at. Its scary sometimes...for the opponent. So I HIGHLY recommend this barrel as it is a total improvement over the stock and is the first thing to upgrade on a 98 Custom.

So if you're a Tippmann owner, go out and buy this barrel now! I'm not sure how this barrel will perform with other pricier guns, but it worked great on my Tippmann

I've tested most balls out there. In general, I recommend fresh paint that aren't dry. Meaning they have the "anti-coagulative" oil on them. For example, the pink evil paintballs are dry but the yellow ones have an oil coating. Dry paintballs are good for the flatline, but not regular barrels. Some names include, Draxxus Inferno (SFX), Diablo Blaze, Evils, RPS Premiums, etc.

Strengths:

Very Accurate
Stylish Looks (bead blasted)
Light
Reliable

Weaknesses:

Does not use standard barrel plug

Review:

I had read ALL, and i mean all hundred something, reviews for this barrel. And I decided this barrel was the one for me. I was deciding between the J&J Full Tilt Ceramic, J&J Ceramic, and the Lapco BigShot. With such wonderful reviews of accuracy, I picked this one. As soon as I received the barrel in its plastic tube, I was happy to see that the barrel had style. The design-ish markings, smooth black (bead blasted), and stylish engravings and writing made me want to stare at it. After I picked up my gun, I went over to my local paintball shop and picked up a few hundred balls. I-Balls i believe. I think they were just ball holder pods full of paintballs that they sold (100-round pods). it went for 4 bucks so i just bought a few. I also picked up a red dot sight for about 30 dollars. When I got home, i slapped on the sight and went out to my deck with my gun and my lapco and stock barrels. With much self control, I actually left my stock barrel on the gun to test it out. I shot about 70 balls with the stock. While shooting with the stock barrel, I had the feeling that I was trying to aim the CURVE, if you kno what I mean. Instead of aiming the gun, I felt that I was looking more from the side of the gun to watch the path of the paintball and shoot accordingly. I didn't dare aim with the red dot. After, I screwed in my BigShot and just the difference in the look of the gun made me happy. The 12" barrel went perfectly with my gun (did I mention bead blasted?). So, I took "aim", still in the same mind set of the stock barrel, I tried to aim the path of the paintball again. However, I noticed that the path was relatively the same after each paintball. So this time, I used my red dot, but I found that I had to zero in the scope. After the cycle of aim, shoot, adjust sight, I finally got the sight zeroed. Through this process, I was unconsciously recognizing that this barrel allowed me to actually use the scope with more than decent results. So, I had fun the rest of the day, shooting a 1 foot by 1 foot piece of wood from about 90-100 ft away. This was all done using the red dot scope. I definately recommend this barrel. It will help you out in a paintball game whether you decide to play speedball in the back, in the front, or if you play woodball. While paintballs cannot be expected to have the trajectory of a bullet, this barrel will make your paintballs go as accurately as they possibly can. Face it, paintballs just aren't perfectly round, balanced, etc. Still, you can come close with this barrel. Yes, some people cry about the sound but I didn't really notice a difference. My A-5 was loud with the stock and with this barrel its about the same noise level. But I have to admit that I didn't take the time to analyze the sound because I was too busy having fun with its accuracy. Be warned however, if you do not have the right paint, it will not be all that accurate. Cheap paint will result in a few curve balls, as with all barrels.

Edit-1 year later
I'm editing this post to share my experiences with everyone else deciding whether they should buy this barrel or not. All I can say is that, it has never failed me. 1 year down the road and I've gone from using it as my primary barrel, to my backup barrel, and now I'm currently using it as my primary barrel again. In scenarios when my flatline would fail me, I've switched to 'ole reliable here and the balls are dead on. What you pay for is what you get here, in double. I would have easily paid more than 55 dollars for this, because as I think about it, it was the best piece of paintball equipment I have ever bought. (And I've spent ALOT on paintball equipment). I can think of two possible weaknesses for this barrel off the top of my head. One is that you may consider this barrel loud. It's no louder than the stock barrel, but get over it, tippmanns are loud. Two, is that it doesn't use a barrel plug. Get a barrel condom, you'll need one nowadays for almost every single field out there.

Conclusion:

Get this barrel. It will make you happy. If your deciding between this barrel and something else, this barrel will make you happier. I personally think the looks of this barrel is enough to put it over the top of any other barrel out there with similar accuracy (boomstick). O yea, it also costs only 55 dollars (bead blasted, 47 for anodized).
Hope I helped all you potential buyers. =)

Multiple barrels including the flatline, standard barrels and barrels with rifling

Marker Setup:

Tippmann Model 98 w/ expansion chamber & scope
Kingman Spyder

RecommendedPaintballs:

All tests done with standard quality paint.
Cheap paint sucks, don't expect results outside of 40'
Expensive paint is pointless unless you have the hardware to back it up.
If you pay more then $42 2000 you're paying too much

Strengths:

Accuracy and range

Weaknesses:

louder is not an issue... I hear every shot from every barrel

Review:

A buddy of mine is a ballistics expert for the US Military. Using a two foot by two foot board with a one inch grid we plotted dispersion graphs using two different markers, four different barrels (including the flatline) with and without the expansion chambers. I have to say, what we found shocked me.

We placed the target at 20 foot intervals starting at 20 feet and moving out to 120 feet. We then fired enough shots for statistically relevant data using each setup. We then figured out the dispersion and transformed the data into circular graphs to represent the shot groups.

Before doing this I was a firm believer in my flatline. Now it's for sale on ebay. There is truth to the range of the flatline, it certainly gets them out there. If you are a cover fire player who likes to spend money on paint then that's the barrel for you. Don't get me wrong, I love my flatline, but I am a fronline player who hates to lob paint across the field in the hopes of hitting someone or covering for someone else.

I chose the Lapco BigShot to test because my brother uses one on his spyder and he always seems to get the "lucky" shot. In fact, he gets the lucky shot just a little too often. Now I have statistical proof why.

The bigshot out shot every other barrel we had (including rifled barrels and standard straight barrels). I was sold on it when I hit the board 100% of the time at 100 feet (Note: my flatline missed 20% at 60 feet).

Conclusion:

This is a good barrel. I'm sure there's financially backed players who have better gear then this but you're not going to find a better barrel for the money. I have the statistical data to back that up. If I could post graphs on here I would ... and you'd be amazed.

NOTE: For some reason my friends 98 w/ Armson, and my other friends A-5 w/ armson perform different. The A-5 w/ stealth is a force no to be reconed with. The 98 however is nearly the same as the stock barrel. Your tests however might be different.

This barrel has made my day. I was starten to think I wasted my money on my Pro Carbine because it wasnt livin up to my expectations but after I got this i have a whole new outlook on paintball. You can nail anything within from 75-80 feet with relative ease, and with a presice aim can get accurate shots up to 125 feet.

I've found that I can get at 120 ft(not a recommended game shot, just messin around) a 5inch grouping 6/10 times with Draxus Dusk. at 110 ft 7/10, and at 100 ft 8/10. Anything less than that you prett much just have to point and you can almost garuntee a succesful hit.
The longest dead-on shot so far that I got was 135-140 feet (which if I was aiming at a person of course woudn't of taken, but it was a tree) which is pretty damn good in my book. It also has a unique whisseling sound it makes when it shoots over your head which it intimidating. It can easily compete with barrels 25-50 bucks more than it and out perform it.

NOTE: This barrel for some reason didnt work near as well on an A-5. Using the same FlashI was using when he had the Stealth, and then back to Dusk it perfomed slightly better than my Carbine's stock.

Conclusion:

With this barrel (and the heavier tp of a carbine) I can get through a whole day shootin less that 350, and still get a large number of outs. I honestly think this barrel is 10 times better than any barrel in its price range or in the 100 dolla range. If you have a 98 custom and cant afford a flatline get the next best thing..................LAPCO BIGSHOT!

The accuracy with this barrel is sick, its awesome lookin, and little $$$

Weaknesses:

none. a bit louder then my friends J&J, but more accurate

Review:

Bought this barrel a few days after i bought my a-5 and field tested it. sure the a-5 decently accurate stock, but with this barrel, the other guys dont stand a chance. I made a head shot from about 60 ft on the first shot. while shooting i noticed no drop off or crazy shots. although, i somewhat wish i had bought the 12" instead because it seems to get in the way when im looking around trees and such. but this barrel is the best buy you can make for your a-5/98c.

Conclusion:

First thing you should upgrade to is this barrel. its extremly cheap, even for poor guys like me, it has amazing accuracy, and with the a-5 mp5 sight, i almost never miss.

The Lapco 12" Big Shot is an excellent performer. I like that it comes in a bead blasted finish because I dislike the shiney finishes. This barrel was a huge improvement over the stock barrel. My 98 custom became more accurate when I replaced the stock barrel with it. Remember to buy the Lapco barrel plug because the one that came with the 98 is way too small. I have had no ball breaks with this barrel. Overall this is a great barrel that is well worth the $50.00 or so that it cost.

Conclusion:

I would recommend this barrel to all Tippmann 98 owners who is looking to replace the lack luster stock barrel. It increases accuracy, which is what a replacement barrel supposed to do. The price is not too high, and it well worth the money.

I've only extensively used Nelson Precision so far, but this barrel will shoot anything you give it (medium-large bore is very forgiving), though obviously the better the match the more accurate it will be.

Strengths:

Accuracy
Sound signature
Value
Looks
Weight
Durability

Weaknesses:

Sound signature (I know it's in both)

Review:

I'm going to go through each point listed above and review it.

Accuracy: This is hands down the most accurate barrel I've shot through. Including those listed above, as well as an Empire Revolver Kit (with basically perfect bore match) on my brothers Ion. I didn't put it in similar products though because it was on a different marker. After switching over to the Bigshot, I've noticed a significant increase in the ease with which first shot eliminations are made. This barrel is considerably more consistent and predictable than any other I have tried. It's not going to make you a better player. No barrel will. But it is certainly an asset. The porting design is great, extremely even, but they don't place it so early that it removes half of the barrel's length from effective use. My brother's Revolver kit is ported at the very beginning of the front. In that case, why bother with the front? A barrel should have about 8-10 inches of unported length to get the paintball to velocity with maximum efficiency. Lapco understand that, and don't waste half of the barrels length with cool looking, but useless porting. I also think that the Lapco porting design looks SWEET.

Sound Signature: My logic is that if your going to have a loud marker, have a very loud marker. If your going to have a quiet one, make it very quiet. Both have intimidating effects. The in between doesn't. The being said, it's all preference. I enjoy the loud barrel, but I couldn't make my marker quiet if I wanted to. It's a tippy after all :).

Value: Great! Cheaper than most barrels that it outperforms.

Looks: This barrel looks very cool, but is still practical. They don't anodize the barrel into some flashy colour to attract customers like the other companies seem to invariably do. This isn't a major factor, but its nice to know that your opponents won't see a bright blue pipe swinging around in the brush. The matte-black bead blasted finish is great, very scratch-resistant.

Weight: Perfect weight I find. But that also depends on your marker and preference.

Durability: The Bigshot is incredible in this area. First off, as said above the bead-blasted finish is extremely durable. But what I find to be the major advantage in durability is one many seem to dislike - the stepped final bore. While it prevents use of barrel plugs (which I, along with many fields find unsafe), it also means that if you somehow ding the end of your barrel, it doesn't matter, because its still larger than the paintball. This is a worst-case-scenario feature, but it doesn't really affect price and is a nice thing to have. Overall, the barrel is extremely well machined.

Conclusion:

Well, I recommend this barrel to anyone playing in the woods, and probably anyone playing speedball. The need for accuracy doesn't change, and on a speedball field is noise really a problem? From my admittedly limited experience on airball fields, the needs are the same. So it goes highly recommended overall. Kits allow for good bore match, but if the barrel's effective length is too short or if it is of poor quality, it still won't shoot accurately. So I recommend the Bigshot over any kit I've tried (I've often seen Bigshots compared to Boomsticks/Ultralites in accuracy).

A final note, that I put here because it doesn't fit anywhere else: Range is the same with this barrel as any non-flatline/apex barrel. Do NOT believe anything that says a barrel or marker has better range than any other except for those two. Simple physics are the reason for this: objects in motion stay in motion unless acted on by an external, unbalanced force. If a paintball is traveling at the same velocity, unless spin is intentionally imparted upon it, it will go the same distance, regardless of what barrel it was fired from. So don't listen to people when they say this barrel has excellent range. It's range is the same as any other. Buy it for it's accuracy.

Anyways, because nothing is perfect, this barrel gets a 9 out of 10. However, because it would be closer to 9.9, I give it a 10. Sure, it's bore matching cannot always be perfect. But this is a one-piece barrel review. So I will review it as such.

I'll be sticking with this barrel for a good long time. I finnally found a barrel that I really like. Its effciant, honed very well, easy to clean due to less porting but is louder than most barrels. Which IMO isnt really a bad thing. Its just a good barrel that will shoot straight given medium or small sized pbballs. Its one of the best barrels for the price.

Conclusion:

If you want an excellant, effciant, easy to clean barrel. And one that wont break the bank, get this one. It really is worth it and is clearly one of the best made barrels around.

Marbs, evil omen, all stars, big ball...I have used hellfire but I didnt like it.

Strengths:

Very smoth hone, ceramic finish, super acurate.

Weaknesses:

Loud, but who cairs, dont be afarid.

Review:

Since I ordered my first big shot, I have shot it on a custom 98, all sorts of spyders, an a-5, and now my timmy... which leaves me with a large barrel collection. Recently I have been instrested in a snap shot and decided to do some reading on their sight and it turns out for the small company that lapco is they make one heck of a barrel. Also all of their barrels are ceramic, the deffinition basically means anodizing.... which is what it is. I have shot a J&J and I never will again.

For looks/duriblity, lets put it like this I play front because my friends are scard. Ever see the movie Saving Privet Ryan? Rember the end when Oppum was hiding in a hole crying... ya its like that. Anyway this barrel has never let me down. I have dove into bunkers, smacked it agenst all sorts of things and its never chipped or scratched. It looks aweseom, deff better then many of the cheesey 1 million port barrels like the armson stealth.

For performance- in the case that I do have to make a long shot this barrel places balls in 1 foot circle spreads from 150feet. Never is their a stray ball.

Cleaning- being all one bore its easy to clean, I use a combo of light dertergent/water followed up with a pro team barrel treatmen polish before every game and breaks wipe out like they are an indangered species.

Conclusion:

Awesoem barrel, aweseom price. If your a woods baller and are anal about stealth go buy a wisper barrel. If your all about the one shot kill buy this now.